He tells us that he has heard that the Mayor’s new plan is to close only two of the four proposed gates in Regent’s Park:

Macclesfield Gate – leading from Avenue Road;

and Park Square West

whereas the consulted plan (agreed with 60% support) was to close an additional two gates:

Park Square East

and York Gate

In addition, the hours of closure have been reduced to 7 to 9.30 am and 4 to 7 pm on Mondays to Fridays only, whereas the consulted and agreed plan was to close them apart from between 11am and 3pm seven days a week.

“Long term, through motor traffic has no business in any park, particularly this one. It shouldn’t be acceptable that massive volumes of motor traffic, saving a minute or two on people’s journeys, are cutting through the park.
Every day, let alone every week and month that goes by, we risk further collisions".

If true, the proposals will not only not remove the through traffic but may put more traffic on the east side of the Park.

It is not clear who has put pressure on TfL to water down the plans, though the finger has been pointed at Westminster Council, but we are very concerned indeed that the mayor appears to be ignoring the results of the consultation, particularly as this may have knock-on effects on the plans further north including Avenue Road and Swiss Cottage.

CS11 is supposed to be a well engineered ‘Superhighway’ from Swiss Cottage to the West End and work was supposed to have started last year.